Intercoolers of one form or another have long been used in a variety of applications throughout industry. An intercooler is a heat transfer device that transfers heat from a gas or liquid (fluids) passing through the device to ambient air. Most intercoolers include fins to improve their heat transfer ability. Often a mechanism, such as a fan, is used to increase airflow past the fins, thus increasing the cooling ability of the intercooler.
One use for intercoolers is to cool the gases exiting the compression stage of a turbocharger before they enter a high performance automotive engine. Cooling the gases increases the density of the gases, which increases the efficiency and the horsepower of the engine. The cooled, higher density gases increase the amount of air forced into the engine by the turbocharger, which increases engine horsepower.
Turbocharger intercoolers are generally mounted at the front of the automobile or near an exterior surface of the automobile such as in a wheel fender or at the rear of the automobile to ensure that high volumes of cool ambient air flow through the fins of the intercooler. Air flowing through the fins of the intercooler cools the exterior of the intercooler by thermal conduction which in turn cools the gases flowing through passageways in the interior of the intercooler. Alternatively, intercoolers may be located within the automobile's body and provided with external air flow through the use of air ducting. Air ducting has the disadvantage of taking up space and adding complication and cost to the automobile.
Turbocharger intercoolers of the type described above, because they are passive, are only capable of cooling the fluids flowing through them by some fixed amount that is dependent on their size, location, temperature of the ambient air, etc. In contrast, a turbocharger intercooler provided with some sort of active cooling system could potentially cool the temperature of the gases below the temperature achievable by a similarly sized passive intercooler.
The present invention is directed to providing a turbocharger intercooler that includes an active cooling system. The provision of an active cooling system increases cooling ability and has the further advantage of allowing the turbocharger to be located away from the exterior surface of the automobile and possibly avoiding the need for air ducting, thus increasing the design options available to an automotive engineer.
In addition to cooling the gases exiting the turbocharger, intercoolers are sometimes used to cool the oil in the engine or transmission of a high performance car. High performance cars tend to heat the oil in the engine and transmission beyond an acceptable level during rigorous operation. Excessive heating of the oil can cause the oil to break down possibly causing catastrophic damage to either the engine or transmission. Even if oil breakdown is not a problem, cooling the engine or transmission oil removes excess heat from and maintains the temperature of the engine or transmission at acceptable levels.
As with intercoolers for turbochargers, oil intercoolers are commonly mounted near an exterior surface of the car in order to allow cool ambient air to flow through the fins of the intercooler. Alternatively, the intercooler may be provided with ambient airflow through the use of air ducting.
As with intercoolers used to cool the gases exiting a turbocharger, oil intercoolers are only capable of cooling the oil passing through them to some predetermined temperature determined by the design and size of the intercooler and the temperature of the ambient air flowing through the intercooler, etc. As with turbocharger intercoolers, oil intercoolers provided with an active cooling system could potentially cool the temperature of the oil flowing through the intercooler to below that of a comparably sized passive oil intercooler. The present invention is also directed to provide such an intercooler.
Potentially, if an intercooler could be provided with an active heating or cooling system, it could also be used to replace the heating and cooling systems in current vehicles, such as automobiles and trucks. The present invention is also directed to provide such an intercooler.